I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.

The pincushion and thread catcher

I have wanted one of these thread catchers for years, having seen them in magazines and on blogs, so was really pleased when I saw the class advertised.

I would really love to do a City and Guilds Embroidery or Quilting course but sadly can’t find one near me. Instead I have decided to sign up for one off classes to work on specific things when I can.

I did a Gillian Travis one earlier in the summer which taught me new applique skills and how to free motion quilt. I still need to finish that once these block of the month challenges are done but really enjoyed seeing how other people designed and the inspiration of Gillian’s work.

That is the lovely thing about classes, I could have bought books or patterns that went through the techniques of that applique style and this weekend’s class but it is so much nicer to spend a day with like-minded people learning things face to face.

I got the chance to use up my last few pieces of these fabrics. Here are all the squares laid out for the thread catcher and pincushion sections.

Am now down to only the tiniest scraps of the patterns for string style pincushions so will have to use something else for the planned sewing machine cover.

There were only two of us in the class, the other person being my lovely friend Helen from knitting which was a very nice surprise. I have not seen here for a while as she has been busy moving house and I have been out of circulation.

Here is her pincushion in progress. The pincushion part is filled with a muslin bag of sand at the end which gives it the weight needed to hang from a sewing desk.

I am very pleased with the result, there are a few bits where the joins are not perfect but it is pretty and very useful. I think I need to make at least two more, one for downstairs and one for my Mum.

They also go very well with my new pincushion and needlebook set, my craftroom will look so co-ordinated!

Here are all our efforts in a row – and one with all the pins in that Lisa, ‘made earlier’, as a demo model. I love the measuring tape fabric that she has lining the demo model.

Justine was also there working on a cushion as a demo for the shop, it is filled with such lovely things, the example quilts they have on the walls are beautiful and it always inspires me to visit, (and to buy fabric but more of that in a later post!)